Some truth in this, and then the extrapolations go a bit far for me.
I agree that much of original Free Software equates 'users' with (advanced) software engineers.
One of the underlying realities...
@nprofile1q...
One of the underlying realities that's hard for technologists is that a lot of people don't want to fiddle with their software.
You are missing the point. Software is unique in that it is the component that allows a general-purpose machine to emulate a special-purpose machine.
If software perfectly fits your requirements, you have no need to modify it. People don’t want to modify software, they want software to make their computer into a machine that solves the problem that they have. No piece of off-the-shelf software will ever precisely solve every user’s problems because every user has unique problems.
Is it easier for a user to work around this mismatch or to adjust the software to properly address their problems? If it’s the former, you have not exposed the power of a computer to them, you have built an appliance.
One of the underlying realities that's hard for technologists is that a lot of people don't want to fiddle with their software.
You are missing the point. Software is unique in that it is the component that allows a general-purpose machine to emulate a special-purpose machine.
If software perfectly fits your requirements, you have no need to modify it. People don’t want to modify software, they want software to make their computer into a machine that solves the problem that they have. No piece of off-the-shelf software will ever precisely solve every user’s problems because every user has unique problems.
Is it easier for a user to work around this mismatch or to adjust the software to properly address their problems? If it’s the former, you have not exposed the power of a computer to them, you have built an appliance.